Back to the wall, under fire from a fellow professional, Roger Federer's inner competitor showed itself as he lived to fight another evening at London's 02 Arena.

Aided by a hopelessly inept opponent in Dominic Thiem, he kept his hopes alive of making the Nitto ATP semi-finals by winning his second group encounter 6-2, 6-3 in 66 minutes.

It had been an uneasy week for Federer until Tuesday evening, losing his opening match and then being subject of suggestions from retiring French player Julien Benneteau that he receives too many favourable scheduling decisions at tournaments, notably the Australian Open.

Share this article

Share

He responded by backing himself both on and off the court the court. He briefly tackled the issues brought up by Benneteau, who had pointed to the investment Tennis Australia has made in the Ryder cup-style Laver Cup, which is primarily promoted by the Swiss legend and his management company.

According to Federer, it is wrong that he invariably gets to choose when he plays. 'I get asked, would you like to play Monday or Tuesday sometimes. Sometimes I get asked, do you want to play day or night? Asia wants you to play at night,' he said.

'Yes, sometimes we have our say. But I asked to play Monday at the US Open. I played Tuesday night. It's all good, you know. I've had that problem for 20 years in the good way. Sometimes I get help, sometimes I don't. I think there you have it.

Federer has faced off-court allegations of preferential scheduling over the course of this week

Thiem shakes hands with Federer - the Swiss can still make the semi-finals of the tournament

'Sometimes they ask, sometimes they don't. But a lot of the facts are not right, just to be clear, from what I heard. Julien is a nice guy, I know him since junior times, I think all of this has been totally taken out of context.'

Another bumper crowd backed up the earlier argument of Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley that Federer's status makes him a unique drawcard in the game.

The hapless Thiem made 34 unforced errors in a performance which showed, partly, why the older generation have survived at the top so long.

After the match, Federer was greeted by Real Madrid midfielder Toni Kroos and shared a picture with the German on Instagram.

Federer demonstrated his world class ability on the hard surface inside the O2 on Tuesday

Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares emphatically booked their place in the semi-finals for the third time at this event earlier on when they defeated Colombia's second seeds Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah 6-4, 6-3.

Federer now meets Kevin Anderson on Thursday, and will most likely need another win to progress. Anderson hammered Kei Nishikori 6-0, 6-1.